Online Accounting Software for Small Businesses

Running a business is not easy, especially when it comes to accounting. Mountains of Excel spreadsheets, shoeboxes full of receipts, different software for different tasks, frantic rushing during tax time; who wants this? You just want to get accounting done quickly, right? Actually, you can do that: just choose an online accounting solution and see your business life becoming easier with each passing day.

Modern accounting software are entirely cloud-based and unite several features in one solution: invoicing, creating estimates, projects, tracking your work time and that of your employees, managing payroll, keeping an up-to-date inventory, see your bank transactions in real time, and get auto-generated business reports. But there is more: integration with third-party apps, availability anytime, from anywhere, and cost-friendly pricing. And no matter which accounting solution you will choose in the end, you can say goodbye to endless frustration and start boosting your incomes.

Features

There are plenty of features in decent online accounting software; here are some of them:

Invoicing

To create a customized invoice you just have to pick your client, provide some necessary data and you can send your invoices to your customer. Furthermore, you can turn estimates accepted by your clients into invoices, create recurring and/or multi-currency ones, and even allow instant online payments for your clients.

Expenses

Once you manually enter your expenses, or even attach receipts thereto captured with the camera of your mobile device, the software can be taught to automatically categorize expenses from then on. Moreover, your expenses are displayed in the dashboard so you will always know how much money you have spent so far. Want some expenses to be reimbursed by a client? Attach them to an invoice and your money will arrive soon.

Projects and Time Tracking

Create projects from scratch or by using previously created documents such as invoices, estimates and expenses. Your projects can be fixed price or time-based ones; in the latter case you often get a clever time tracker with which you can calculate and invoice your billable and unbillable time.

Reports

Do not worry about those pesky business reports anymore: they are automatically generated from your incomes and expenses. Furthermore, if you give (limited) access to your accountant you two can work simultaneously: you managing your business and him/her managing your books.

Cashflow

If you want to know the current status of your business, such as your incomes and expenses, your banking etc., just take a quick glance at the continuously updated dashboard and you will see all necessary data displayed there.

Payroll

This feature serves various purposes: it lets your co-workers record their own work time, create timesheets therefrom, allows you to easily pay your employees and even prepares and prints your 1099s.

Integrating Other Software and Services

An online accounting solution is like a virtual assistant; always ready to be at your service. But what if we say you can make it even better? Due to the fact that most accounting companies support and offer an API, your new software can integrate with hundreds of different third-party applications. You don’t want to leave behind software you like but still want to use an accounting solution? Well, you can hit two birds with one stone: just allow the accounting software to import data from your existing one and you don’t have to ever switch between solutions anymore.

There is plenty of software ready to be integrated into your accounting solution: for instance PayPal, which not only could act as a bank account, meaning that all transactions are displayed in the dashboard, but if the fast payment option is turned on, your customers can pay you with this e-wallet as well. Other software includes Capsule CRM which manages your customers, Gusto which is ideal for you if your accounting solution lacks the payroll feature, Fundbox which helps you get advance on outstanding invoices, Receipt Bank, an expense reporting tools and even eBay, Amazon and Google Apps.

Online Accounting Solutions Recommended for You

There are only two things to keep in mind when picking your new accounting solution: the choice must be yours and trust your instincts. Regardless of your choice, allow us to recommend you two long-time competitors for consideration: QuickBooks Online and Sage One.

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks, which was founded in 1983, recommends QuickBooks Online to small businesses. Regardless of the pricing package you will choose from the three available ones, you can track your incomes and expenses, create invoices and estimates, and see your banking which is automatically synced. But if you subscribe to better products and extra services, you can manage your bills, track your inventory, prepare and file 1099s, allow your clients to use the fast payment option and even get your payroll done. Furthermore, most of the features are available from the handy iOS and Android apps, you can integrate over 300 third-party software and switch between 6 languages. The free trial period is 30 days, but if you are not satisfied with the services, you can get a full refund within 60 days from subscription.

Sage One

UK-based Sage has been on the market since 1981 and like QuickBooks, it also has a cloud-based accounting software, Sage One, which is available in 7 languages and can be used on PC and Mac. The software has all major accounting features a business needs: unlimited (recurring, multi-currency) invoicing, quoting, and billing, tracking your incomes and expenses, and the auto-categorization of your transactions. Sage is even capable of forecasting your cashflow based on your existing ones, and auto-building 18 different reports. You can integrate your software with 22 apps and you can also access your account from the iOS and Android apps. Sage only offers one pricing plan, but you can try the software for free for 30 days before purchase.